Readers debate whether gifted students will lose out as state report cards focus on achievement gaps

Katy Batdorff | MLive.comWoodcliff Preschool teacher Miss Suzie Gee talks to her kids during 'Circle Time' last year . East Grand Rapids Public Schools has added a preschool program for 3-year-olds at Woodcliff Preschool to go with their four-year-old preschool program.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Will programs for gifted and talented students be cut in an effort to close the gap between high- and low-scoring students?

The changes are part of a deal with the U.S. Education Department to waive No Child Left Behind’s requirements in exchange for a series of reforms aimed at improving schools overall, but especially those in struggling urban and rural areas.

The changes were praised by an education advocacy group, with leaders saying that the problems of low-scoring students were for years masked by the high-achievers in some districts.

New this year is a designation based in part on the gap between the highest-scoring 30 percent of students and the lowest-performing 30 percent – a measure that landed some high-achieving schools in affluent areas in a new, “focus school” category. The 10 percent of the schools with the widest gaps are added to the group.

The state lists 358 schools in 178 districts in the new category, and they are to receive support to diagnose and correct the gaps with an eye toward getting all students on a track to be considered college or career ready.

Included in the new group are schools accustomed to being held up as examples of what is working instead of being targeted for improvement.

Schools in Ann Arbor, East Grand Rapids, West Bloomfield, Davison, Forest Hills and West Ottawa all will have to accept help in closing the achievement gaps.

“It would be easy to try to avoid or deny this news,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of the Education Trust-Midwest. “It’s important that schools and parents take the time to understand what the new school labels mean – and embrace the opportunity to make meaningful changes to better support our students.”

But some readers, such as Fernaig, argued that school in the group are being penalized, and that gifted and talented programs could be on the chopping block if schools decided to narrow the gap by dropping the top as well as raising the bottom.

“So our school is in the 98th percentile, but has a huge achievement gap and so it's now a focus school! Why? Because it houses the district's gifted program. So of course the gap is huge. The other district schools have a low gap because, yes, you worked it out, their gifted children are sent to the magnet program. So what do these labels tell you? Nothing worthwhile at all. Did no one think about this before setting up these arbitrary categories?
The bottom line of course is resources. What additional monies are schools going to receive to address these issues? I would bet a great deal on zero.”

Specialeducation said gifted programs might suffer as an unintended consequence.

“The point is that the state is not predicting the unintended consequences of state policies, like moving or closing TAG programs to close the gap. Of course it is the right thing to create better interventions for low-achieving kids, but it is much harder.

You might not think that schools are being punished, but few parents or school boards are pleased when their districts land on a negative list in the paper. So schools react to avoid the lash. Graduation rates problem? Just be sure that you get every drop-out to sign up for adult ed. Whether or not they attend is not your problem and your grad rate is fixed on paper. Not saying it is right, but it is predictable behavior for systems under stress. If the folks at Michigan Education Department want real change, they need to think harder about unintended consequences.”

Reader familymandm worries that too much emphasis is being placed on students at the bottom.

“We are spending so much time and money on the lower-achieving students that our middle and high students are being ‘left behind.’ As a parent of a high and middle student this concerns me - the only saving grace is that they are within five years of being out of high school! I believe that everyone deserves a solid education, but the idea that every student is going to be college-bound and ready is not realistic.

I also believe that the only way we are going to even the playing field is to have all kids prepared to be in school. Kids need to be read to, talked to and given experiences in which to draw from. This can only be done by parents at early ages. Parents need to be held accountable to have their kids ready to enter school. Until this happens, lower achieving kids will continue to lag behind.”

Mark_Anthony agrees.

“This article talks about focusing on high-end schools where gaps exist. I'm sure those schools won't be given more resources. They'll be 'under the microscope' to fix the gaps and will have to steal resources from the hard working top performers to help the laggards.”

I noted that the "laggards" are struggling students who need help the most. Perhaps the greater society benefits when these students rise. Does East Grand Rapids, West Bloomfield and Ann Arbor need more resources to help those students, or do they need to redirect some of the resources they have now?

It’s easy to celebrate the high-achievers. They make us proud, and with good reason. They usually have vocal and demanding support groups.

That’s not always the case with the students at the other end of the spectrum. They are challenging, often with messy home lives and other problems.

By adding the focus category, the state seems to want to make sure that those students are not forgotten.